Comment by johnnypangs
6 hours ago
I agree, is the 100th rest api I’ve made for my 5th employer art? I don’t think so. It’s just a way to (maybe) make my employer money.
I’d say the brainfuck language on the other hand is art. Hard to draw a fine line as to which is which.
I can say most if not all the projects I’ve ever made land in the former. I’ve made some clever solutions but nothing approaching something with meaning.
Is it not a problem of understanding and searching for complex problems to solve, and therefore understand?
If you've written 100 REST APIs, you're probably pretty familiar with them. But Brainfuck is completely alien and something you would have to work to understand. Maybe the distinction is in the effort required for understanding.
Regardless, I think meaning is something one has to self-impose. It does not exist naturally in the universe, so if you don't think it matters, it doesn't matter.
I agree that meaning is something one has to self-impose, but there is also meaning in the creation of art. I don’t find that same meaning in work that accomplishes the goal of making an employer money in the same way I’d incorporate meaning into a short story I’d write.
I think what I’m trying to say is that there are both ways to create art by coding and ways to just make a product for consumption. And I think using AI for said products doesn’t really reduce the meaning of said work.
I think I gave brainfuck as an example because it seems there was a meaning behind it beyond being profitable. The writer had something to say. Does writing something like brainfuck with AI take away its meaning? I’d personally say yes, but that’s an interpretation.
I believe it's a spectrum, just like there is a whole spectrum between the Mona Lisa and a generic flyer for your local bowling alley.
There can be beauty in even the smallest of things. You can tell alot about a person by how they choose to structure even down to the loops and methods.